U-boat Commands

Hans Witt spent his first years in the navy on school ships, including the Gorch Fock and the Schlageter. In October 1940 he entered U-boat training. With U-129 he completed three very successful patrols in the western Atlantic and the Caribbean. Later he spent a year as a member of the BdU staff.

In the last months of the war he was one of the highly decorated U-boat commanders (like Schnee, Cremer, Emmermann and Topp) who took command of the new Elektro U-boats (types XXI and XXIII) in an attempt to turn the tide in the battle of the Atlantic.

About ranks and decorationsRanks shown in italics are our database inserts based on the rank dates of his crew comrades. The officers of each crew would normally have progressed through the lower ranks at the same rate.